Sermon Tone Analysis

Power and Authority to Cleanse that which is Unclean

Leprosy Considered Ceremonially Unclean

The moral Law:

The moral law encompasses regulations on justice, respect, and sexual conduct, and includes the Ten Commandments

The Judicial Law: restitution for a civil losess

The Ceremonial Law:

remembrances of God’s work in Israel (e.g., feasts and festivals

they include instructions on regaining right standing with God (e.g., sacrifices and other ceremonies regarding “uncleanness”),

Notice there was no means provided for a cure

not only did the person have to endure the physical the stigma of being outcast in society

Imagine what it would be like to have to live outside the city and pronounce your “unclean” to those passing by.

Lepers in India

(outcasts) - shame etc.

The exemplifies what all of us endure as human

but shame is directly tied to the consequences of sin

Ed Welch in “Shame Interrupted” connects shame to 3 common human experiences

You feel like an outcast -- you don’t belong

You feel naked - While everyone else is walking around with their clothes on, you feel exposed and vulnerable.

You are seen, and what others see is not pretty.

You feel unclean - Something is wrong with you.

You are dirty.

Even worse, you are contaminated.

There is a difference between being a bit muddy and harboring a disease

Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.

Shame Endemic to Fallen Humanity

but shame is directly tied to the consequences of sin

Jesus Could Do What the Law Could Not

Fulfillment of the Law

It should be observed here that the attitude of the Law toward the person, garment or house suspected of leprosy is that if the disease be really present they are to be declared unclean and there is no means provided for cure, and in the case of the garment or house, they are to be destroyed.

If, on the other hand, the disease be proved to be absent, this freedom from the disease has to be declared by a ceremonial purification.

This is in reality not the ritual for cleansing the leper, for the Torah provides none such, but the ritual for declaring him ceremonially free from the suspicion of having the disease.

This gives a peculiar and added force to the words, “The lepers are cleansed,” as a testimony to Our Lord’s Divine mission.

ALEX.

MACALISTER